Accessorize Haul

Popped into Accessorize in Liverpool St Station and ended up staying far longer than I intended - they have loads of fun stuff at the moment so a 5 min visit can easily turn into an hour-long browse!

My one annoyance about Accessorize? The overly attentive sales assistants. I felt like I was constantly being met with choruses of "Can I help you?"/ "Are you ok?"/ "Do you need any help?"

By the end of it I really felt like climbing atop a mountain and hollering "I'M JUST LOOKIIIIIIIIIIIIIING"!!

Except I wasn't just looking, was I. I did end up making a few purchases...


The pic above actually shows two separate necklaces that I think look cute together. As a tea lover, I was drawn to the necklace with the tiny ceramic tea cup, gold tea spoon and pink ribbon bow (£6). And of course, what goes with tea? Cupcakes! So it was almost a forgone conclusion that I was also going to get the cupcake necklace (£6). This one has a mini cake and a small diamante stone suspended from it. The lettering reminds me of Carrie from SATC's namesake necklace... although I really hope no-one thinks my name is Cupcake - it sounds distinctly stripper-ish :S

Next thing I picked up:


Some rose quartz style chandeliers (£12). Recently I haven't been wearing earrings much so i thought I'd get back in the saddle with these babies! These would look nice with some pink toned blusher (MAC Pink Swoon) and lipgloss.

And finally...

Some sweet little gold bows (think these were £5 or £6) for work.

So that concludes my little Accessorize post... enjoy the rest of the bank holiday, I'm off to do some ironing :D

Cheap Beauty Deals

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves this bank holiday weekend, despite the temperamental weather!

Just thought I'd pass on a great tip that my colleague shared with me. She's the only one at work that knows that I moonlight as a beauty blogger and during one chocolate binge-eating session (Montezuma's chilli and lime dark chocolate, ginger and dark chocolate and honey and banana turtles - yum!), she told me about the page in Martin Lewis's Moneysavingexpert.com that is dedicated to beauty discounts and deals.

The savings that particularly caught my eye are:

• Stila cosmetics: up to 50% off through halfpriceperfumes.co.uk.
  Cheek colour pans are £5.99, down from £11
  Lip glazes are £3.99 down from £11.99
  
  
• YSL Touche Eclat for £15.50 inc P&P at cheapsmells.com
  At the checkout, enter the code YSLNo1. I just tried this and (at the time of writing) this works, but is only valid until May 3...
  

I'm going to bookmark this page and visit it regularly!!

Why, martin... with all these beauty discounts you are really spoiling us

Testers & Germs

Just the other week, I was stood by the L'Oreal make up counter feeling a bit grossed out at the scene that was unfolding before me: a girl, having finished work and probably on her way out for a few cheeky drinks in the City, was hurriedly re-touching her make-up using the testers. There she was, with wild abandon, slicking on the worn-down manky lipsticks and finger-prodded eyeshadows. Urrrgh!!

I would rather go without than put on make-up that countless people had deposited their countless germs in. Eye-infections, anyone? Cold sore virus? Hell-to-the-no thanks! The furthest a tester ever gets with me is the back of my hand and even then I wonder what kind of lurgies I've invited onboard.

Coincidentally, this week I came across an article about the dangers of using testers and it's worth a read, if only to confirm what you already know: that testers should go nowhere near your face. Check out the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268268/Dangers-make-counter-E-coli-EVERY-tester-beauty-counters.html

Here are a few choice quotes which made me put down my toast:

"In a shocking study, researchers found that every make-up tester pack they analysed was contaminated by the e.coli bug... As well as e.coli - which causes stomach cramps and diarrhoea and, in severe cases, can be fatal - staphyloccus and streptococcus bacteria were found, which can cause infections"

"Dr Elizabeth Brooks, a biological sciences professor at Jefferson Medical College in Pennsylvania, who led the study, said: 'Wherever you can see e.coli, you should just think e.coli equals faeces."

Testers= E.Coli = Faeces? Dr Brooks, this is possibly the most disturbing equation ever.

And just incase you needed further clarification, Dr Brooks is on hand:

'That means someone went to the bathroom, didn't wash their hands and then stuck their fingers in the tester"

Stay away from those testers!

AUI: Applying Under the Influence

Let's be honest, getting ready is often the best part of a night out. The metamorphosis process is fun: I love breaking out of my nondescript daytime chrysalis and emerging- after prepping, painting, teasing, straightening, curling- as a peacock. (Please suspend all knowledge of biology when reading this. I recognise that saying a butterfly would have been more inkeeping with the whole 'metamorphosis' and 'chrysalis' analogy thing that I had going on, but a peacock seemed less trite and cheesy).

My mate's birthday night out was no exception. Earlier, I had taken myself off to Boots in search of a nude lipstick and came back with YSL Rouge Volupte in shade 2. Granted- this shade is verging on being too light for me (it's much lighter than it appears in the pic below), but with the right application, it was going to be the perfect fodder to the dark smokey eye that I had planned. So I started getting ready, carefully dabbing on the lipstick, glossing it up with a Juicy Tube and deftly managed to avoid the corpse look...


However, fast forward three hours, numerous glasses of champagne, vodka and sambuca shots, and the same could not be said: in my drunken state, my careful application method had gone out the window and was replaced with a more heavy handed approach. I had taken to doing Jenson Button-style circular laps of my lips with the Rouge Volupte, sans mirror.

At the time I was blissfully unaware, but post-event examination of the photographic evidence proved that I looked ridiculous, atrocious. Ridiculocious, if you will. Yes people- this faux pas warrants the invention of a new word, it was that bad. Not only did the thick layer make me look deceased but the combination of nightclub lighting and camera flash meant that the my lips had taken on a luminous quality. I had glow-in-the dark corpse lips. It was as though I had been snogging Slimer from Ghostbusters:


Thankfully, the photos also showed that I was not alone - my friends had obviously wanted to share in the delight of a new YSL lipstick and it got passed around. There we were, grinning like inebriated buffoons with matching ectoplasm lips! I would so love to upload a pic of us to show you just what I mean, but shall refrain as I don't quite fancy being ostracised by my friends. Someone's attempt to upload said photo to Facebook was met with picture comments such as "GET THIS OFF NOW" and frantic texts like "Please remove picture 57 from album 2 asap". And thus, it was banished to The Recycle Bin. At least I hope so - don't want that one coming back to bite me in the ass in years to come...

This is in no way a slight on the YSL product, rather I just felt it was my duty to warn others of the perils of "Applying Under the Influence". Relying on friends to tell you what you look like is of no use if they are as drunk as you are.

If there was a way of rigging a breathalyser to some of my make-up items, scenes like this could be avoided.

Pearl Drops Instant White

Whilst lounging around with my girlfriends, drinking tea and watching
Jersey Shore*, an advert came on for a product that left me quite
bemused.

Pearl Drops Instant White.

You paint on this emulsion-like liquid which makes your teeth white, temporarily.
It's the non-whitening whitener.

How does this crazy concoction work exactly?! Can I really paint it on
in the morning, attend meetings, and be sure that the finished effect
looks subtle enough up close that my attendees won't think I am the
office nutjob that Tippexed my teeth?

Maybe I'm not too far off the mark: is this, in fact, Tippex re-
promoted as a beauty product? Perhaps some corporate suit wanted a
slice of the billion pound beauty industry and decided to appropriate
it via the stationery cupboard. In that case, I have a great new
eyeliner that I can sell you. Don't be put off by its Biro-like
appearance.

Seems like this product has come from the Boy George Beauty School of Thought. 
But painting double chins black does not make them disappear, much in the
same way that Dulux-ing your teeth probably will not look normal.

Wonder what it's made of. I don't fancy ingesting a Tippex-like substance. 
Something about the skull and crossbones symbol on the side of the bottle
tells me that this would be of limited nutritional value.

Still gonna try it though.

*25 minutes of my life that I shall never, ever get back.

O.P.I Haul

My mum's an OPI obsessive and so am I, so recently between us we picked up few new colours! Most of them are from the Hong Kong collection that came out not so long ago. Here's a breakdown:

Red My Fortune Cookie:
A pillar box red. A brighter red than the other OPI reds that I have (Comet Loves Cupid, Big Apple Red). Less blue based than the others. Probably not my favorite red but a nice bright one all the same. I like how red nails straddle the classy/tarty line.

Hot and Spicy:
Kind of reminds me of a shade from the Miami collection, 'OPI on Collins Ave' but with less red. This colour happened to be in loads of magazines that I picked up. Quite a wearable orange and is a nice match for the coral make-up that has been on trend recently.

Dim Sum Plum:
Nice but unremarkable. Ubiquitous in the way that I think you'd find this sort of shade in every brand's nail polish collection.

Lucky Lucky Lavender:
This shade seemed to receive loads of column inches as the pastel nail trend landed. I was worried about this looking too Tippex-y but I don't think it does. I received lots of compliments when I wore this for the first time - I think it's quite unusual. A cheaper dupe can be found in the Barry M range.

Yoga-ta Get This Blue!:
Hmmm. This looks so lovely in the bottle, like OPI's Russian Navy but with a teal shimmer running through it.Unfortunately the shimmer doesn't come through when you apply it to the nails and it ends up looking just like Russian Navy or the Barry M dupe of Russian Navy.

My favourites from the above? Lucky Lucky Lavender because it's not usually the shade family that I go for and Hot & Spicy because it's a wearable orange.

Anyone tried the Leighton Denny range? As I type this, he is on the shopping channel flogging his wares, which appear to be priced similarly to OPI... am tempted to try it but if I don't like it then the opportunity cost would be that I could have got a bottle of OPI instead! Let me know what the verdict is on the Leighton Denny stuff...

Want List: Revlon Strawberry Suede Matte Lipstick

Though I'm re-evaluating some of the items on my Want List (the Tom Ford lipstick might not make the cut due to the exorbitant price tag (just how good can a lipstick be? Is the product really going to justify that price point? Sorry Tom, but you gots ta go), there was one item that was non-negotiable: Revlon Matte Lipstick in Strawberry Suede.

I really, really like this lipstick. The texture reminds me of MAC's matte red Ruby Woo and the colour is a bright orange-red. I don't think the pic above does jutice to the intensity of the colour, but in real life it has a 'block' effect - totally opaque.

I'm looking forward to wearing this on nights out and even in the day time - although maybe not for work... not sure my conservative office is ready for this one. And that's conservative with small 'c', just to be clear in this election frenzy! =)

I plan on wearing this with pared down eyes e.g. defined brows, no colour on the lids but lashings of mascara, barely-there blusher and highlighted cheekbones. Before applying matte lipsticks, I tend to skip the lipbalm but moisturise my lips well with my face moisturiser instead. This makes the lips feel comfortable but doesn't create the creamy base that a lipbalm would give, which can sometimes take away from the matte effect of the lipstick by making it shiny.

Ahh, this colour puts me in the mood for cocktails and hot weather. Roll on summer!!

The Want List: April 2010

(L-R: Too Faced Mood Swing Lipgloss, Dior Addict Colour Awakening Lip Balm, Mac Prep+Prime finishing powder)


I don't want the sales assistants to take out an injuction on me so I'm going to stop doing repeated slow cruises past these make-up counters and finally make it my business to acquire some products that I've been eyeing up for a while:

1. MAC Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Powder £17
   Finding a finishing powder that lasts and isn't ageing seems to be akin to searching for the holy grail. Loads of people have blogged about this, extolling its mattifying but non-cakey qualities and how it hardly ever needs to be touched-up.
   
   
2. Revlon Matte 'Strawberry Suede' Lipstick £7.29
   Bright but not garish, matte but not drying, this is such beautiful coral-red for summer. I swatched around 15 Revlon lipsticks on my hand in Boots the other day (pearl, creme and matte formulations- all very nice) and this colour had the 'wow' factor.
   
   I like the sophistication of matte lipsticks but hate the application and wear of them - they feel drying and after a while look...stale. I'm always conscious I've got them on my lips. This one doesn't drag and does actually have a suede-like finish, perfect for creating a rockabilly/pin-up girl look.
   
   This might become my summertime obsession, so I will do a separate post about this once I have it and include pics.
   
   It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.
   
   
3. Dior Addict Lip Glow Colour Awakening Lip Balm £20.50
   Saw this on a Pixiwoo youtube tutorial and I liked what I saw. It seems to live up to its claims, noticeably "beautifying and enhancing natural lip colour". At £20.50 for what is essentially a balm, it's not cheap, but I will figure out some make-up maths (same principle as fashion maths- price per wear etc) to justify it.
   
   
4. Too Faced Mood Lipgloss £12.00
   There seems to be a 1990s make-up revival on the catwalks this spring and another 1990s trend appears to have influenced this range of lipglosses - lipgloss that changes colour with your mood. Yes, guilty as charged - I was the owner of several mood rings in my youth (as well as the plastic dummies - remember those?!). Oh, the shame.
   
   I swatched these in Boots and quite liked the Petal Pink or Berry Pink shades. The Pink Shimmer one looks too milky white and didn't transform much on my hand. Maybe I just wasnt in the mood?
   
   It's probably all a gimmicky marketing ploy that preys on nostalgic twenty-something year-olds, but I am curious as to what this is like on the lips and whether it is actually reactive...
   
   
5. Tom Ford's Private Blend Lipcolour £35
   The ex-Gucci designer and director of the Oscar winning film 'A Single Man' has brought out a range of lipsticks that British Vogue devoted a full page to in their April '10 issue. Due for release on April 24, these are slickly packaged, as you'd expect from the Ford-ster. Tom Ford is known for being meticulous - to the extent that he wore them himself whilst in development to make sure they were just right - so I am intrigued to test these colours and see how they perform.
   
   The stand out colours for me are: Blush Nude, Ginger Fawn, True Coral and Pure Pink. But at £35 each, I think just one of these babies will do. In fact, damn - that's a lot of money. I will need to carefully consider this purchase.
   
   

I realise all of the above are lip products and allude to a misspent afternoon swatching make-up in Boots. If anyone has tried any of these, please let me know your thoughts :D

My new MAC blusher

In the space of a couple of weeks, I seemed to keep hearing about MAC blush in 'Peaches' from different sources.

Firstly, I heard that Kim Kardashian uses it to achieve that coral/peach glow she has. As a fan of KK's make-up looks, this was the first tick in the box.

The second tick in the box came when I read that the chick off T4 -Jameela Jamil- uses it because "it makes you look like you eat fruit even though you don't". Now as someone that never seems to fulfil her 5-a-day quota, I took this as a sign. I was meant to take my ass down to MAC and acquire this. The universe was telling me to.

I do like this blush. I like MAC sheertone formulations and this colour is a true peach, which is quite lifting.

Works well with Sugarbomb as a highlight (see my previous post about sugarbomb).

Tick Tock... I can't wait

... L'Oreal announced today that they'll be releasing their new mascara 'Volume Million Lashes' nationwide on May 1st, and I will be the first in the queue for this one.

Femail magazine put 25 mascaras which span the price spectrum (from high-end brands like Estee Lauder and YSL to inexpensive brands like Elf, 2True, Gosh, Maybelline) to the test in their ultimate challenge and this one came out on top. Check out the hyperlink to see the results.

It makes for interesting reading as some of the premium brands score the lowest, having been totally trumped by the cheapo brands - a good example of this is Diorshow weighing in at £18.50 and scoring only 4/10 whilst Gosh Intense Lash receives a glowing review, makes it into the top ten and costs a measly £6 in comparison.

Now, I don't like recommending mascaras. They seem to be the most subjective cosmetic item ever. It's the whole 'one man's junk is another man's treasure' principle: I have friends that swear by YSL Faux Cils, MAC Zoom Lash and MUFE Smokey Lash, whereas neither of these do anything for me.

My personal favourite is L'Oreal Lash Architect in Carbon Black, which is why I am keen to try the brand's new offering (which incidentally will be priced at £10.99). I can build up Lash Architect coat after coat and retouch during the day without it clumping too much. Plus, it doesnt smudge under my eyes (I have oily skin and most mascaras seem to transfer) or flake, and keeps its curl.

But then again, you may try it and find that it's a pile of pants. One (wo)man's treasure...

Anyway, I'll try Volume Million Lashes when it hits the shelves and let you know how I get on. The review sounds impressive, I quote; "Lashes look instantly longer and thicker - as if you've had extensions... gold standard of mascaras". Sold!

My expectations are now set very high and if upon trying this I find that I'm unable to create gale force winds/sweep the floor clean with a flutter of my lashes, I shall be very disappointed...